The British Science Association’s (BSA) is a charity funded by a mix of grants, sponsorship and donations.

Our Ethical Fundraising policy sets out the principles that the BSA will employ in relation to seeking, accepting and rejecting funding, in the form of donations, grants and corporate partnerships, which we need to generate in order to achieve our vision.

The purpose of the policy is to:

• Enable all staff and volunteers whose role includes obtaining funds to determine whether or not to apply for, accept, or refuse a donation from a particular donor – including individuals, companies, trusts and foundations; and
• Ellow the BSA’s Trustees to balance their statutory requirements of ensuring the organisation is fulfilling its charitable objectives, maintaining financial sustainability, and avoiding exposing the charity’s assets, beneficiaries or reputation to undue risk.

The policy (available on request by emailing Vijay Jassal, Director of Development & External Relations at the BSA) also positions fundraising in the context of our vision, purpose, values and commitment to diversity and inclusion – which is core to the BSA’s mission.

All gifts (donations from trusts/foundations or individuals and sponsorship from corporate partners) are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The BSA accepts financial support from, and works in partnership with, organisations and individuals on the following conditions:

• There are strong grounds for believing it will result in helping us achieve our vision of making science a fundamental part of culture and society;
• That it will enable us to further one or more of the organisation’s strategic objectives and does not conflict with our primary activities or organisational values (set out below); and
• The BSA’s Senior Management Team are satisfied that the organisation’s reputation and brand will not be significantly negatively affected as a result of accepting such support.

In any instance where the Senior Management Team are not satisfied that the gift meets these conditions, it will be referred to Council (the BSA’s Board of Trustees) for discussion and a decision on whether or not to accept the donation or proceed with the proposed partnership.